Empire
by TheRoseShadow21
Summary: For all his madcap ideas and aspirations, Nice thinks that if he had to choose between ruling the world and her happiness, she would win without hesitation. Oneshot, somewhat drabbly. Rated T to be safe.


**Based of prompt 43 of 'Fuzzy and Contradictory'. Not suggested by anyone, just something I felt compelled to write after seeing episode 9. **

**I should probably warn you that this is a rather confusing one-shot. Firstly because I wrote this with the intention of being ambiguous about what is actually happening, and secondly because of the story format. Basically, I switch between the two viewpoints several times, with Nice being represented in normal type and Hajime in italics. It's a technique I've used for a couple of other fics, and it tends to work for highly emotional moments, which is what I use this style of writing for. **

**Anyway, despite the confusing aspect, I hope you'll enjoy this fic, and feel free to ask questions if still confused. **

I try to say something, anything, but the only thing I seem capable of saying is your name. Over, and over again, as if it is an incantation. As if the sheer use of my voice could bring you back.

But it cannot. It cannot, and so I get out there and find you. Go everywhere and anywhere, until I find you again and bring you back here, to where you belong. Because you aren't a denizen of the moon. Like hell you are. If you're a denizen of everything, it's here, in Café Nowhere, with me and Murasaki and everyone else.

So, wherever you are, don't go any further, Ok, Hajime-Chan? Don't go. I'm coming to find you.

_What else am I supposed to do? How else am I supposed to make things better? It's all my fault, after all. The flower-shop lady was right. It's my fault. _

_And this is the only way I can think of fixing things. _

_But it's not easy. I'm never going to feel the sun on my face or laugh at Birthday's antics or eat more than my share of hamburgers, each one tastier than the last, and each one given to me by Nice-kun._

_Nice-kun. I suspect that leaving him will be the worst of all. But I've never given him anything in return for all he's given me, the big and the small, the tangible and the immeasurable. This is all I can do:ensure that he is safe, that he doesn't lose something important to him. Because Nice-kun is…Nice-kun is…_

_Behind me? I can hear his voice, all of a sudden. Is this my memories, playing over and over again? Memories of a voice I've heard grow up, along with the rest of him? _

_No. It's real. But it shouldn't be. Somehow, somehow he has found me. _

"Hajime-Chan!"

Why are you ignoring me? What has happened? Where are you going? Let me follow.

_I try to ignore him, I do. I hope that eventually, he'll give up. That, eventually, he will stop calling me and then his footsteps will recede instead of increase in volume and intensity. Because, this wasn't supposed to happen. He wasn't meant to follow me here. Not here. _

"_Where are you going, Hajime-Chan?" suddenly, his voice is right by my ear. _

_Of course Nice-kun caught up with me. Of course he did. I shouldn't have expected anything less. _

_But now, it's too late. _

_But now, there is no turning back. _

_I can't help but cry when he wraps his arms around me and pulls me towards him. _

I wasn't expecting that. I'm not too good at dealing with crying girls. You really should know that by now.

"The last time you cried this much, I'd given you your first hamburger for the first time." I mean this as a joke, something to distract you, because I know you don't remember the full details, but you surprise me by quietly saying that you knew.

So, you remember? That's strange. When did you start remembering? Wait, dumb question. Never mind.

"Is this why you ran off?" I ask.

I feel you nodding. Suddenly I am angry at Art and his cronies, angrier than I've ever been. I didn't think that was possible, but apparently it is.

"This isn't your fault. It isn't any more your fault that you have that Minimum than it's my fault that I have the Sonic Minimum." Every word, true.

I want to see what you are feeling, what emotion your eyes hold now. So I loosen my hold on you, just a bit so you can turn to face me, but not completely because I'm scared of what'll happen if my let go.

_At this point, looking into his eyes is like looking at the tread of my trainers, the palm of my hand. I've memorised every fleck, every expression they hold. I know all the different ways his eyes catch the light, all the different shades the blue turns. And now those eyes are looking at me with concern, backing up all he has just said to me. _

_I'd love to believe that it'll be fine. I'd love to reciprocate his embrace, no less warm now that I'm facing him. But I cannot go back now, and worse, because he came after me, he cannot either. There is no way for him to go back to the warmth. _

_That, in a way, is even worse than knowing that I am a guilty party in all of this. _

You lift a hand and place it near to my shoulder, as if covering something.

"They shot you." You tell me, simply. It takes me a while to realise that you are referring to that time so long ago. The time that you hadn't remembered until now.

"That damn Momoka. You didn't need to remember that. It doesn't matter. It never did. "

"Doesn't matter?" Your voice rises, wobbles, becoming the anxious noise of the past. "Nice-kun, you got hurt because of me. And you keep getting hurt because of me. You keep on, keep on…."

Ah. Now I get it. The few things I wasn't too sure of before, I understand for sure now. The thought makes me smile a little.

"Hajime-Chan, haven't you realised yet?" Judging by the look you give me, you haven't.

"It's not _because_ of you." I explain. "It's _for _you. It's all for you. Of course, being shot completely sucks and all, but for you, it's worth it. And really, do you think I'd choose some quirky ability over my Hajime-Chan who eats too many hamburgers and is so cute while doing so?"

_Cute. He called me cute. He did that the first time he saw me, but I'd thought it was a random, throwaway comment. Not a real, genuine feeling. _

_Cute. The word makes my cheeks hot. Not that it can be seen in this darkness anyway. But still, just a touch embarrassing. But does it matter now? We're the only ones here, and always will be. _

I sounded so corny then, didn't I? I just realised. Damn.

"Now look what you made me do! I can't be going all soppy like this!" I really can't, you know. It's not a good look for my cool image.

Surprisingly, that makes you laugh. And laugh, and laugh. Good. We're getting somewhere. That's good.

_Once I start, I cannot stop. This laughter feels so good. It feels like…it feels like that long, long period of bliss, after Nice-kun found me and before Moral and Art and all the rest of them came and changed everything. It feels right. _

_It feels like home. _

_But I cannot go home now. I am no longer able to have that luxury, that security. _

"_Hajime-Chan?"_

_Is he starting to realise now? Does he know what he's got himself into now? I'm not sure that I have the heart to tell him. Not anymore. Not when he looks at me like that. _

_As I try to find words to string into an answer, he hooks his finger under my chin and lifts my head up, so that I cannot look anywhere else. _

_All my words fall away. Somehow, I know what's coming. _

For a moment, I start to regret my decision. Was it too soon to attempt to kiss you? The wrong time? It's not like I'd know, for crying out loud!

But thankfully, after I draw back, you seem to be smiling.

_I did not realise it was possible to feel insubstantial and grounded at the same time. This is what dreams are made of. I'd say I don't want to wake up, but that isn't true. I want to wake up, and let the dream be something I experience in the waking hours. _

"Hey…Nice-kun?"

"Hmmm?" my mind is starting to wander at this point, thinking of the others. Whether they're looking for us, if they'll end up finding us. I should probably phone. But we'll head back soon. I'm sure of it.

"Would you…do you think…?" you trail off for a moment, then pluck up the courage to finish your sentence "Do you think you'll kiss me again?"

I would love to.

_You smile again, dazzlingly. _

"_Only if you come back with me now. No more running away, okay?" Nice-kun pauses, as if seeing something new in my expression, and then adds. "Please?"_

_I could say yes. I could say no. Both would be a lie. Because whatever I do, the end result would be the same at this point. _

_But maybe, by following him, things might be better. We'd still be stuck, and alone, and eternally in darkness, but he'd be here by my side, and I'd be by his. _

_We'd be living in a dream, and we'd never wake up from it. Alone, in this kingdom that is far from what life actually is. It is less than what he deserves, but there is no way, no way to send him back. He wouldn't listen to me, and in any case, it'd feel as if my heart was breaking. I didn't think it was possible to feel heartbreak at this stage, but there it is. _

_So I already know my answer. _

_When I utter it, his eyes get brighter (I didn't think that was possible at this point, but Nice-kun is just full of surprises), and he lets go of me and holds out his hand. I take it, grasping tight, and we walk._

_And we will continue walking, endlessly. _


End file.
